Posts made by blitzgordon

@Variable:

I think if you want to stick to historical accuracy at all, use your tank stats for the mech inf and leave out tanks. The only “tanks” used in this campaign were very light tanks, even then with limited mobility. The jungle terrain was not conducive to tanks at all. But mech inf kinda represents light tanks IMO, so that would be ok, in limited numbers. Also, any mech inf or tank should require all the space on a transport and should not be able to board a destroyer.

And with those stats (1 tank equals full transport) there is no reason at all to buy a tank over two INF. Same land attack, same space on transports, plus harder to destroy (two INF requires two hits). A possible idea would be to have the tank take up one space but keep the stats. That way it might have its uses.

It would appear as the Nas does favour the US, yeah. Japan has one good, banzai attack (score on three or less against an land units in one island zone), but otherwise their NA:s are equal or in favour of the US. Japan has one that is very good on paper, but not in reality: All 2s in a sea battle counts as ones. Problem with that is that any destroyer or cruiser being damaged is unlikely to make it in time for the next battle anyway. Only real use is for sinking battleships, and that’s hardly enough.

Is nobody playing Guadalcanal anymore or is my question stupid? I feel if the US goes all out with good logistics and amphibious assault, they can land enough artillery on New Georgia to gain the upper hand permanently. Especially since in turn three Japan is first player, they’ll have to be careful not to leave any more islands exposed. Since this game only last about four turns, those 12-15 ART on New Georgia will make it very difficult for to regain enough airfields to win.
  Am I missing something, does nobody care or is the game unwinnable for Japan with two NA’s?

Hi! We played a game using two National Advantages each recently. As the US, I chose Good Logistics and Amphibious Assault. I played Good logistics during purchase turn 1, buying 8 artillery and enough supplies and transports to deploy them, along with one supply+ trans to build an airfield in Malaita. Before that, Japan bought supplies and trannies to build two airfields (first round JAP built one field on New Georgia).
Turn 2: US first player - move everything to SZ south of New Georgia (just kept enough to prevent complete fall of Guadalcanal) - played Amphibious assault during land combat. The results were complete control of New Georgia, with twelve ART left along with one captured airfield. Next turn, JAP has to move back for fear of my twelve ART and the rest of my fleet. I could have invaded another island if JAP had not focused on fortifying his islands with INF. We played first to 20 points, but the rest of the game was easy. One airfield more than JAP and a constant threat from my cannons.
  Of course in round two I lost control of Santa Isabel (north of Guadalcanal) but the advantage of having my ART at New Georgia, an extra airfield and almost unhindered access to the JAP slot made the game very one sided.

Any thought as to counter strategy?
One idea would of course be to not build supplies on purchase turn 1, and instead reinforce New Georgia. But then US can either build airfields to get ahead in the race, or try to land (playing amphibious assault to severely weaken the JAP forces) and go ahead as usual. Weäre playing soon again, and I have to come up with a viable counter strategy to this US play.
It would be great to hear your thoughts!

Ok, so an empty (US) island on which the japanese land a single AA gun without backing it up with bombardment remains in US hands? Damn, then I missed out on one more INF on my last turn assault…

Can AA guns capture an island (and airfields) if the island is otherwise empty but belong to the other player? I’m guessing they can, but reckon it’s a legit question.

I just realized, writing this (at work), thinking about the few games I’ve played this far, what a fantastically fun game this is. I’m so looking forward to my next game as the allies. It’s going to be the first time I play the allies having a more full understanding of the gameplay.

Oh right  :-o… Seems my memory of my own ingenuity betrays me… Yeah, I know the rule, and we’ve played by it. It’s been more than just a tank or two, or I’ve been lucky (or opponent unlucky) with the dice when I’ve managed to stay behind enemy lines trapping tanks.

With Germany, I almost always try to blitz with one or two tanks. If you can open up a hole (clear just one hex) in the allied line, you usually can blitz one tank to put it next to the allied truck supplying that part of the front, thereby trapping it. The tank of course gets destroyed the next turn, but the ratio german tanks:allied trucks = worth it. granted, I’ve only played a handful of games as so has my opponent, but so far it’s worked out nicely.

Not that the allies need more thing working against them in this game, but we still play that if Germany surrounds and cuts off the northern cities, you can’t reinforce them with units from the other charts, only from the northern. Sort of makes sense, lest the trucks goes a long way outside the battlefield.

After the dogfighting, and after the anti-aircraft fire (1 die per type of unit), the surviving aircraft makes a normal attack on the ground. Four dice per surviving bomber, 1 die for each fighter that survived. Just a regular attack, which may, but isn’t guaranteed, to hit a supply.

Oh, ok, so it’s actually ok to “pick and choose” what your off-board trucks will load and where it will unload as long as the hex can legally be reached from any of thhe three allied fronts?

Frimmel, you are a dear. Thank you very much for these clarifications! This game seems to be very interesting. Even though my allied line got completely overrun and kaput, I definately see the possibility for an allied win in the future.

Hello. I´m sorry if this has been covered before, but I have three questions after playing my very first game of BOTB (lost big time as Allies on round 5).
Q:1 - During movement, can you have a truck pick up supplies, drop them off someplace, and then use those supplies during the same movement phase to move units?

Q:2 - When blitzing from one hex, can tanks blitz to different hexes? If so, is the cost still only one extra token?

Q:3 - Can tanks and artillery attack across rivers? I know they can’t move across, but what about simply attacking?
Thanks in advance,

/ blitz

EDIT: one more question. Can a truck from, say, the allied western front chart, pick up units from the others fronts charts? Say, picking up INF from its the western chart, going on the borad, going off-board on the northern front, pick up some ART and finally dropping the whole lot of at Bastogne?

When I play with my friends, we seem to deploy all the time. It’s always such a race for airfields and to keep or capture New Georgia, depending on whether you’re playing Japan or US. Almost never do I not rapid deploy anything.

Hi! Simple enough question I guess. can you bomb your own airfields? I would vote no to that, but haven’t seen anything about it in the rules. Would be very effective if you’re on the verge of losing an island and it’s fields. What do you guys say?

I see. Good thing I’d have won the game even without that sunken carrier…

Granted…

Yeah, I see what you mean by the very rear and so. Still, I kinda like it that no place is safe. Last time we played, pretty much all aircrarft was viped out and the battle was all transports and infantry for the final rounds, no time to build Carriers. in that situation (agreed, a very specific one), carriers actually become more of a liability, and not repairing it can actually be better. By allowing that space to be bombed, japan can reach the US dock from New Georgia, and the US can reach japans dock from Santa Isabel. Possibly makes or a game with more options for the players. Still, it’s not in the rulebook and your way of looking at it is more in line with “reality”.

On the other hand, the rule about ships going directly to the damaged zone after being hit by subs and fighters not being able to finish the job, is less “real”.

Oh, ok. So a ship in the “damaged” zone cannot be attacked? I figured I was real smart when I sent out a bomber to my opponents’ base card and bombed his unrepaired Carrier. But then I cannot do that?